Several Hong Kong lawmakers have suggested using empty cruise ships as makeshift quarantine facilities, while others have called on residents to “complain less” and “tolerate more” amid an ongoing surge in coronavirus cases that has overwhelmed the government’s response.
Other suggestions floated on Wednesday included allowing willing patients to be ferried across the border to mainland China for treatment, and establishing a “war room”-like headquarters for fighting the pandemic.
Following a spate of infections among cross-border truck drivers that hampered the supply of food and goods to the city, some also proposed using trains or drones to deliver necessities.
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Hong Kong expecting more than 4,200 new coronavirus cases
The lawmakers, elected in December in the first major poll since Beijing’s “patriots-only” political overhaul, convened online on Wednesday for their weekly chamber meeting to pass a customary motion of thanks for the chief executive’s policy address, delivered in October.
The policy blueprint, issued before the onset of the fifth wave, focused largely on boosting land supply and building a new metropolis in northern Hong Kong. But with case numbers skyrocketing, lawmakers on Wednesday turned their attention to the city’s uphill battle against the pandemic.
Hong Kong was expecting to confirm more than 4,200 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, doubling the previous record for most cases in a single day set earlier this week.
Lawmakers also thanked Beijing, Hong Kong officials and frontline workers for their anti-pandemic efforts, with some urging the public to be more considerate.
“People should look at the public interest and complain less. Tolerate more, and take that proactive step,” said Ngan Man-yu, a lawmaker for the Kowloon East constituency.
On Tuesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the government would use new public housing blocks and hotels to house patients with mild symptoms, as the unprecedented crush of infections overwhelmed medical facilities.
Lawmaker Yang Wing-kit, of the Kowloon Central constituency, suggested the government also consider employing cruise ships given they were not in use at the moment, a view echoed by his colleague Joephy Chan Wing-yan, from the New Territories South West.
Chan added: “Many corporations have claimed the government’s financial relief. Shouldn’t they be pitching in to help now?”
Yiu Pak-leung, the legislator for the tourism sector, said his industry had been at the forefront of the struggle against the pandemic, with hotels long serving as quarantine facilities for arriving travellers.
“If there is an urgent need, the sector is happy to see cruise ship terminals being turned into quarantine facilities,” he said.
Hotel firms, Carrie Lam to discuss addition of 10,000 rooms for isolation use
Reverend Canon Douglas Koon Ho-ming, a legislator from the Election Committee constituency, proposed Hong Kong patients who were willing could be sent to the mainland for treatment.
“Some may think it undermines ‘one country, two systems’,” Koon said, referring to the governing principle that grants Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. “But China is willing to help Hong Kong as its mother country, and it’s something everyone wishes to see.”
As of Tuesday, a total of 47 cross-border truck drivers had either been confirmed as infected or tested preliminary-positive since February 4, with several others placed in quarantine as close contacts.
The development has caused vegetable prices in Hong Kong, which sources 92 per cent of its supply from the mainland, to shoot up in the past week. The chief executive said the government had been exploring delivering goods by sea.
Steve Ho Chun-yin, the lawmaker for the agriculture and fisheries sector, suggested the government consider using trains, and even drones to make shipments, pointing to the Berlin Airlift, in which the American and British air forces dropped food and supplies into West Berlin during a Soviet blockade in the wake of World War II.
“You won’t solve the problem by complaining. People should think about what they can do,” he added.
Tan Yueheng and Carmen Kan Wai-mun, both from the Election Committee constituency, described the city as being on war footing, and urged the government to set up a headquarters to better coordinate various departments and communication with the mainland.
Hong Kong to ‘consider importing fresh goods by sea from mainland China’
Legislator Chow Man-kong, who is also a scholar specialising in mainland-Hong Kong economic policies, called for an end to work-from-home arrangements for civil servants, urging the government to deploy every member of its 180,000-strong workforce to combat the pandemic.
Most lawmakers also noted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reported remarks on Wednesday instructing the Hong Kong government to take the “main responsibility” in tackling the coronavirus pandemic, while offering the full support of mainland authorities.
Legislator Holden Chow Ho-ding, for the New Territories North West, said it gave the city confidence that Beijing was committed to helping Hong Kong.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Coronavirus: Hong Kong fresh food supply shocks set to continue as more cross-border truckers undergo quarantine
- Coronavirus: experts predict Hong Kong’s fifth wave could peak at 28,000 cases a day, with 1,000 deaths by June, say ‘Shanghai-style lockdown’ should be considered
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